


maybe friends

by pomxtangerine



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: High School AU, M/M, slow and unpredicatable updates for many reasons, valdangelo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-22
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-18 08:56:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2342585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pomxtangerine/pseuds/pomxtangerine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Did you fall from heaven, because-” The voice above him breaks off in laughter, choking unattractively. “Okay, chico, I’m not gonna be a tool. You alright, man?”</p><p>Nico groans and rolls onto his back in response, glaring up at the voice’s owner. It’s a skinny boy with floppy, dull looking curls and sparkling eyes, impish features in a broad smirk as he squats down, poking at Nico’s shoulder for the second time. “Ayy, should I be calling for help?”</p><p>“I’m fine, shit,” Nico hisses as he drags himself to half-sitting, leaning on his elbows and wincing as his back cracks loudly.</p><p>“A great relief,” the boy says, straightening up and offering Nico his hand. “Wouldn’t want some kinda manslaughter shit on my record in addition to the softcore stuff.”</p><p>Nico blinks at him, then his hand.</p><p>“Don’t leave me hanging, bro,” the guy whines.</p><p>Nico raises an eyebrow but allows himself to be pulled upright.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> heard valdangelo needed more shitty high school aus and low quality porn i am summoned
> 
> actually those are probably the last two things we need but lmao thats what youre getting

“Why don’t you come with us?”

 

“Why don’t you eat a dick?”

 

Jason gives Nico an exasperated look. “C’mon, man. Last hurrah or whatever! You haven’t done anything this whole summer!”

 

Nico sniffs. “Actually, I’ve done a lot. I’ve beaten eight PC games, I learned how to make eclairs, I got a lot of sleep-”

 

Throwing up his hands in frustration, Jason turns to Hazel. “The whole team is going. Make him go!”

 

She bites back a smile as Nico indignantly exclaims “Hey, I’m right here! You can’t make me do anything!”

 

Lacing her hand into Frank’s she beams at him. “Nico, you really should come. I mean, if you don’t-” She looks away coyly, biting back a grin. “Who knows what Frank and I could get up to alone?”

 

“What?” Nico and Frank yelp simultaneously, Frank turning bright red and stuttering.

 

Hazel blushes too, trying and failing to hold in a giggle. Nico narrows his eyes.

 

“Well, that settles it.” Jason cuts in, smiling broadly and clapping a hand on Nico’s shoulder. “You have to come, to protect your sister’s virtue from this rapscallion.”

 

“Guys,” Frank says, looking horrified and, if possible, even more red. Hazel muffles a laugh into his bicep.

 

“For fucks sake,” mutters Nico, ignoring them all to stomp towards the front door. “Whatever, I’ll come. But you owe me so much shit.”

 

Jason and Hazel both let out joyous cheers, high-fiving each other while Frank looks like a wounded puppy.

 

“Not because I don’t trust you, Frank,” Nico throws over his shoulder as he leaves. “I just know when Hazel resorts to sex implications, there’s no way I’m getting out of it.”

 

He shuts the door behind them before anyone can retort, crossing the short walk to Piper’s car in the driveway and claiming shotgun as compensation for his sacrifice.

 

“Yayy!” she cheers when he slouches into the seat and shuts the door behind him with more forcefulness than was strictly necessary. “Hey, Nic!”

 

“Hi,” he replies flatly.

 

“Buck up, you nerd, it’ll be fun,” she says to his reflection, evening her eyeliner in the rearview mirror.

 

“Whatever.”

 

~

 

It isn’t fun.

 

As soon as he walks in the door, Nico nearly gags from sheer quantity of bodies and spilled drinks in the same place, muffling a groan. Hazel sees someone she knows and waves excitedly, tugging Frank away as he smiles as her in acquiescence.

 

“Hey, uh-” Jason half-yells over the thumping music, arm slung around Piper’s shoulder as she searches the crowd, eyes dancing. “I can, like-”

 

Nico shakes his head vehemently. They’re in the same circles, acquaintances at best even though Jason seems to have taken him on as some sort of little cousin ever since Nico joined the soccer team. “No, it’s fine. Go have fun.” He offers up a quick smile, waving at Jason encouragingly.

 

“Okay, man.” Jason looks doubtful, but Nico can tell he wants to take the out, and when Piper’s face lights up and she nudges his side, talking in his ear and nodding at something across the room, he shoots Nico an apologetic grin and nods back at her. She waves at Nico before they start to push through the teenagers packing the room. As soon as they’re out of sight, Nico sighs, sets his shoulders, and spins on his heel.

 

This sends him directly into Percy Jackson, who was apparently walking by directly behind him. Nico sends a quick prayer of thanks to all the gods that neither of them were holding drinks as both of them stumble back a few steps, Nico flushing and wide eyed. Percy laughs as he recovers himself.

 

“You pack a punch now, di Angelo!” He ruffles Nico’s hair despite Nico’s attempt to flinch away. “Damn, I always forget you aren’t still a stick skinny little nerd any more. All grown up.” He grins up at him proudly, the two or so inches Nico has on him now accentuating his point as Nico stares at him for a moment.

 

“Dude, get drunk with me!” Percy exclaims, like this is a fantastic idea. “Party! Annabeth’s getting shots!”

 

Nico feels physically faint for a moment at how absolutely horrible an idea that is. “Uh, no. I, uh, promised I would be-” He gestures wildly, almost hitting a couple girls walking by as he makes for the nearest door. “Here. In here. So, sorry, but no.”

 

Percy gives him a confused look as he latches onto the doorknob and waves a bit frantically, backing in and shutting the door firmly behind him.

 

Then there’s nothing under his feet.

 

He lets out an undignified squeak, flailing, and lands on his ass on something hard with a bang, then another, then another, and he’s sliding down a set of stairs. When he finally reaches the bottom, he curls into a ball, groaning. At least it wasn’t a closet, he tells himself. A closet would’ve hurt less physically, but the sheer weight of irony would’ve probably crushed him alive. Something prods his shoulder.

 

“Did you fall from heaven, because-” The voice above him breaks off in laughter, choking unattractively. “Okay, chico, I’m not gonna be a tool. You alright, man?”

 

Nico groans again and rolls onto his back in response, glaring up at the voice’s owner. It’s a skinny boy with floppy, dull looking curls and sparkling eyes, impish features in a broad smirk as he squats down, poking at Nico’s shoulder for the second time. “Ayy, should I be calling for help?”

 

“I’m fine, shit,” Nico hisses as he drags himself to half-sitting, leaning on his elbows and wincing as his back cracks loudly.

 

“A great relief,” the boy says, straightening up and offering Nico his hand. “Wouldn’t want some kinda manslaughter shit on my record in addition to the softcore stuff.”

 

Nico blinks at him, then his hand.

 

“Don’t leave me hanging, bro,” the guy whines.

 

Nico raises an eyebrow but allows himself to be pulled upright, the boy’s grip surprisingly firm. As soon as Nico is standing, he leaps over the couch in the middle of the room, crying “parkour!” before sprawling on it and retrieving his game controller, fingers tapping its side with absentminded energy as he unpauses and mutes whatever game’s on. Nico uses the lull to eye the room. The stairs he fell down are behind him, unfinished, and the walls are bare concrete with pipes exposed in the ceiling. The room is empty save for the heavily used off-pink couch and an entertainment station with a big tv and a couple gaming consoles, game cases stacked haphazardly against the wall.

 

“So, what brings you to my humble abode?”

 

Brought back to the present, Nico clears his throat. “Just not about the party thing up there.”

 

He raises an eyebrow but miraculously makes no further comment, only glancing at Nico with what he swears is some kind of vague understanding. Before Nico has time to get defensive, he grins widely again. “Screw that, then! I jacked some beer, it sucks ass, but whatever you can get, amiright? You can play this with me!”

 

Nico hesitates before nodding, stripping off his jacket and slinging it over the back of the couch. The other boy chokes on his swallow of beer, doubling over, red-faced and coughing into the sofa.

 

NIco pulls back, blinking. “Should I be calling for help?” he asks dryly.

 

The boy raises a hand to flick him off, gasping a breath.

 

Nico smirks. “Wouldn’t want some kinda manslaughter shit on my record.”

 

The boy collapses back against the couch, face fading back to its normal hue. “Don’t quote me at me!”

 

“Don’t give me such great openings,” Nico retorts, taking the conventional route to walk around the couch and drop down on the side opposite the boy. “What’s the game?”

 

“Not 100% sure,” the boy admits sheepishly. “It had cool cover graphics, so I just went with it.” He jerks his head at the controllers and quits the race he’s on, slipping a can out of the twelve pack and tossing it to Nico, who catches it from where he’s retrieving a controller before returning to the couch and popping the tab. He takes a sip. It’s lukewarm and shitty but he doesn’t have any real aim right now so it seems better to do than nothing. He waits as the other boy sets up a two person race, eyes flicking all over the screen.

 

As the starting track plays, he eyes Nico, apparently trying to gauge his emotional commitment to video games. They both start out silent and focused.

 

Thirty seconds later, the other boy is brandishing his controller with ferocity, yelling at the tv as Nico spits out swears in Italian, evidently rebutting the other character’s words in English.

 

“Sono così andando a vincere,” Nico mutters.

 

“Hey! I caught that!” the other boy exclaims. “You are not going to beat me!”

 

Nico flushes but raises his eyebrows. “How do you know Italian?”

 

He shrugs. “I know Spanish, and sometimes I can catch stuff in like, Italian and Portuguese. How do you know it?” They both duck as their characters go under a tight bridge even though it’s obviously not real.

 

“Grew up there until I was nine,” Nico responds absently. “Feels like decades ago, but I still slip into it sometimes.”

 

“Dude, we have to be friends now!” the other boy exclaims. “We can drive people crazy saying stuff they don’t understand to each other! It’s settled, we’re besties. We’re already doing friend stuff!”

 

It takes Nico’s mind a few moments to catch up with the sheer amount of information in those five seconds of monologue. He frowns in confusion. “We’re already doing friend stuff?”

 

The boy snorts. “Don’t you have friends?”

 

Nico is silent.

 

“Oh, oh shit. Dude, I wasn’t- I’m sorry, man.”

 

Nico uses his horrified pause to maneuver around him, cutting in front and accelerating through the finish line, throwing up his arms in celebration.

 

“You fucker!” the other boy cries as he comes in fourth, and Nico appreciates how quickly his mind seems to jump from one subject to the next. “I demand a rematch!”

 

“Eager to get beaten again,” Nico observes, smirking.

 

“We’ll see about that.”

 

~

 

Two hours later, they’re on their 43rd race and nearing the level of certifiable experts. They’re both kind of tipsy and warm and the couch is old and overused with a sagging middle that they’re sliding progressively further and further into, thighs glued together, elbowing each other occasionally when they get worked up because go figure, they both talk with their hands when they get enthusiastic. The boy is going off about some kind of complicated propulsion system he saw in an engineering magazine he nicked from a stand. Nico isn’t sure how they got to this topic from the billion other things they covered in a complicated, twisting side conversation as they played, but he knows he kind of likes hearing the other boy talk. At the exact moment he registers this thought, the talking cuts off abruptly.

 

“Dude, was that a glitch? Did you see that?” he yelps excitedly. He reminds Nico of a puppy. A buzzed puppy. Whatever. Nico’s attention snaps back to the screen. The boy’s car drives into a wall, then- straight through.

 

“Aw, hell yeah!” He drives through another few walls, completely ignoring the track. Nico tries it, swerving. He hits the wall and loses like a quarter of his health.

 

“Cazzo! What’re you doing?”

 

“There’s, like, a command thingy.” He flails a bit. “Like, hit a and x and the left thingy-”

 

Nico takes a guess and hits the wall again, making a frustrated sound.

 

“No, like this.” Leo tilts his controller, angling it at Nico. It gleams in the half-darkness of the basement. “Loooook.”

 

Nico blinks, ignoring the controller. “You have, like, fucking long fingers.” This seems entrancing at the moment. They are, long, pianist’s fingers, look like they’d be wizard with small, steady adjustments. He laughs- it isn’t a giggle, he swears- and traces the boy’s index finger. “Big hands.”

 

The boy snorts. “All the better for jacking off with.”

 

Nico was planning on snorting too, playing off the image that gives him, making a snarky comeback, but that intention gets filtered through alcohol and comes out as exactly what he doesn’t want to want to say. “Yeah?” he murmurs, throaty and low and suddenly the room is too still, full of silent tension, the game a weak static transmission in the background.

 

The boys eyes widen and Nico’s brain is filled with instant panic, a littany of shitshitshit echoing past the slight haze of intoxication, he’s about to freak out and say no homo about eighty times but then the boy shifts a little closer, gaze locked on his.

 

“Yeah, s’nice.” He watches Nico carefully, and they’re both almost whispering, an unspoken convention in the abrupt quiet of the room. He grins wryly. “Maybe other people are loads better at jacking off. I don’t have a second opinion to cite.”

 

“You could get one,” Nico ventures, ignoring the pun. The boy’s tongue flicks out to wet his lips and Nico breaks. “Show me?”

 

“Yeah, okay.”

 

And the boy is setting his controller down and reaching for his zipper, unbuttoning his torn up jeans and shoving them down to the start of his thighs, just below his hips, glancing at Nico and biting his lip before jerking his boxers down too, wrapping a hand around his cock and starting to move his wrist. He’s half hard, and Nico watches as his dick fill with blood until it’s flushed, a drop of precome spilling over the head and rolling onto his fingers and it’s still so quiet, just the barely there sound of skin on skin and the occasional catch in the boy’s breath. Nico’s cock is straining against his jeans and he’s fully facing the boy, eyes shut now and lips parted. His eyes flicker open, meeting Nico’s, and he groans softly. Nico is- he’s fucking done, and he flips over, straddling the boy’s lap. He looks up at Nico, wide eyed, reaching his free hand to splay over the back of Nico’s neck, barely brushing his nape.

 

Something snaps and it’s like everything floods back into the room.

 

Nico and the boy meet in the middle, the boy straining up, hand tightening on the back of Nico’s neck as he presses onto Nico’s mouth and the kiss turns passionate and hard and filthy. The boy groans, hand clenching before he seems to comes to a decision. He lets go of his dick and goes for Nico’s shirt. Nico pulls back slightly, yanking it off and dropping it on the floor. He fumbles at the boy’s army jacket as he ruts into Nico’s inner thigh, slipping his arms out. Nico deposits it next to his own shirt on the ground, and is momentarily distracted when a pack of cards spills out, scattering on the floor.

 

“Are those the Special Edition Mythomagic Oriental pack?!”

 

The boy clunks his head back on the couch, hips still twitching up. “Fucking what?”

 

“Oh my gods, can I see them?”

 

He is fixed with an incredulous stare. “We’re having sex, dammit!” the boy practically yells. “You are going to get off, then and only then can you see the Special Edition Oriental pack, you dumb fucking nerd!”

 

Nico blushes. “I know, just- does that have the Jiangshi card? Because-”

 

“Yes, yes I have the fucking Jiangshi card! Does that turn you on? You like a man with special edition holographic backing and spánies certification gold stars? Are you fucking happy?”

 

“Shut up,” Nico mumbles, but they’re both laughing.

 

“I hear orgasms add two hundred health points to your weakest defending card,” the boy quips and Nico collapses, shaking with laughter. This, however, presses the boy’s dick against his own through his jeans and he gasps.

 

“Dammit, you’re cute, you fucker.” The boy shakes his head, stripping off the tee that was beneath his jacket. “Never woulda guessed, with all the black and, like, muscles and-”

 

Nico cuts him off with a kiss, canting his hips forward without even thinking about it. The boy hisses and fumbles with Nico’s jeans, not really making much progress without being able to see. Nico sucks one last  time on his bottom lip before stumbling off the couch and undoing them himself, kicking them off with his boxer briefs as the other boy wriggles out of his pants and pushes them onto the floor.

 

“Get down here before I have time to get self conscious,” the boy says, waving his hands. He’s skinny, yeah, but Nico can dig skinny, and anyway, he’s not as skinny as Nico was two years ago, with a thin happy trail and hipbones Nico could base a couple dozen fantasies off. Not to mention his hands and the constant buzz of life he carries.

 

Nico shakes his head, biting back a smile and dropping onto the couch. He changes the boy’s direction, dropping them both back against the armrest with a thump. The boy lets his legs fall open and Nico crowds in as close as he can, edging his face into the boy’s neck and sucking at the side of his throat. The boy licks his hand, messy and wet, before reaching between them, wrapping it around both their cocks at once. Nico lets out a startled moan at how good it is. He knots his hands in the boy’s hair as he fucks into his fist, nipping lightly under his jaw now as the boy lets his other hand come down to grab Nico’s ass, urging him even closer.

 

“ ‘m close,” he pants. “I’m gonna-” he swipes his thumb, catching it on the slit of his dick, and bucks under Nico, coming hot and fast over both of their stomachs. His other hand slips, fingers skimming Nico’s asshole and Nico makes a choked off sound as he comes too, fucking hard. The boy’s hand strokes him through it before falling away as Nico flops onto his side, nearly falling off the couch so he won’t smush the other boy. They’re left facing each other and suddenly Nico feels very naked and very nervous.

 

The boy blinks at him sleepily before leaning forward, licking into Nico’s mouth one more time, sloppy and sated, and Nico relaxes, kissing him back with the kind of ferocity that can only come from relief.

 

“Fuck, that was really good,” the boy mumbles when he pulls back, grinning. “My stomach’s fucking covered in jizz and you’re all clean because you were on top.” He laughs, sitting up. “I don’t have anything to clean up with.”

 

“Improvise,” Nico murmurs from where he’s still lying down, lifting himself on his elbows. The boy looks at him in confusion for a second before Nico’s tongue flicks out as he starts to lap up the come against the boy’s stomach, soft and warm. It’s salty, maybe, a little bitter, and it’s not the best thing Nico’s tasted but it’s not exactly unpleasant.

 

“Holy shit,” the boy whispers. Nico smiles when he feels the boy’s dick twitch before licking one last slow stripe across his abs and sitting up.

 

“There.”

 

The boy opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, there’s a loud sound from upstairs, like someone just dropped a full cooler on the floor, and they both jump and make eye contact, simultaneously reaching for their clothes. Nico throws his on quickly, hopping up to slide back into his boxer-briefs and jeans. The other boy shrugs on his shirt lazily, squirming back into his boxers and leaving his pants unzipped and unbuttoned over them before glancing at Nico lazily.

 

“I bet you’re pretty far back in the closet, huh?”

 

Nico doesn’t even have to answer, as the door at the top of the stairs opens and his face is all the confirmation the boy needs.

 

“Hi, um, Percy said-” Hazel’s voice floats down the stairs, giggly and a bit tipsy.

 

“Yeah, I’m here!” Nico yells back, slipping his jacket on, face burning.

 

“Okay, yay! I’m just going to not try the stairs, then. We’re leaving now! I bet you’re happy about that.” She laughs.

 

Nico shrugs before realizing she can’t see him. “Maybe not,” he replies, starting to walk up the stairs but unable to stop glancing behind him. The boy gives a small smile at his answer before stretching and disappearing behind the couch’s back.

 

Hazel hugs him when he reaches the top of the stairs and shuts the door behind him before pulling back, nose wrinkling. “Ew, you’re all sweaty and you smell like-” she gasps and blushes. “Sex? Is there a girl down there?” She reaches for the door.

 

“No!” Nico yelps, batting her hand away. “There isn’t a girl!”

 

She narrows her eyes for a second before giggling. “Okaaay, sorryyy, you didn’t have sex.”

  
That isn’t what I said, Nico thinks, but fuck if he’s gonna say it. He blinks hard for a few moments before taking a deep breath and following her out the front door.


	2. swag

When Coach Hedge blows his whistle, half the team flinches. Percy lets out a whimper, eyes squinted almost shut, and Connor Stoll looks like he’s about to start sobbing.

 

Jason winces and clears his throat. “Coach, do you think you could maybe keep it down with the loud n--”

 

“I don’t care what you princesses did last night, this is the second to last practice before school starts and I will take full advantage of it whether you are prepared or not! On the field, four laps!” The air groans with static feedback from his megaphone, and Connor actually does start sobbing into Ethan Nakamura’s shoulder.

 

“Do you cupcakes think I’m joking? Field, now!”

 

Jason, stoic co-captain that he is, leads the team onto the field, Percy following mostly because everything is a competition between the two. Nico falls in behind them. Normally he’s at the back, not because he’s bad at running or anything, just because. He likes being at the back. But today, being at the back would mean practically walking behind Connor, who’s now unrepentantly hanging off Ethan, and Jake Mason, who looks like he’s about to thr-- yeah, he’s throwing up on the sideline. Nico wrinkles his nose and speeds up slightly.

 

“Nico?” Apparently Jason’s opened his eyes wide enough to make out the person next to him. Nico grunts.

 

“You’re… spry today.”

 

Nico would raise an eyebrow, but he feels like Jason’s more focused on not looking into the two pm sun than picking up on facial subtleties. “I didn’t get wasted like you idiots.”

 

Percy’s mouth is open to say something dumb about liquids or summer, probably, but he’s interrupted by an otherworldly groan to their right. Stumbling out of the passenger seat of a beat up MG, Dakota gingerly removes his arm from over his eyes and then moans again. “Am I late?” He sees Jason, Percy, and Nico, who’ve stopped to stare at him and the car that just drove  directly onto the field . “Oh, hey, Capson. Pac- Jer- Person. Captains Person!”

 

It takes Percy a second to catch on, but when he gets it he looks delighted. “Person! Jason, bro--”

 

Jason cuts him off. “There is a  car on the  field .”

 

Dakota turns to look like he didn’t just step out of it. “Oh, yeah! Dudes, meet our new foster kid!”

 

He pops the door and leans in. “Hey, here’s Person.”

 

A muffled voice echoes out of the car. “Man, just because Texas has shitty biology courses doesn’t mean I don’t know what a fuckin’ person is.” But then Dakota is stepping back and a guy is crawling over the front seat and Nico gets a brief glimpse of a red shirt and a confusingly familiar head of dark curls before the guy is going “ ack, shit! ” and falling out of the car. Percy and Jason step out of the way quickly, but Nico is so caught up in trying to figure out where he knows that hair from that he doesn’t react. 

 

This results in the front of his shirt being grabbed as the boy instinctively catches his fall and stumbles backward, accidentally dragging Nico with him.

 

That results in both of them thumping against the car in a spectacular feat of teenage clumsiness and  that results in Nico accidentally pressing the boy against the car, chest plastered together and his legs between the other boys’ thighs and that  results in the boy making a sort of “ bwAk ” noise and then eye contact and tHAT results in Nico realizing that it’s the Boy From Last Night and internally screaming in horror.

 

What he does externally, though, is move his jaw like he’s coming up with something to say and try to get his eye to stop twitching.

 

“hwELL, this seems familiar!” the boy quips, managing to wince and beam at the same time. His hands flex in Nico’s shirt and then quickly drop it and Nico has a fleeting thought about how they felt on-- He steps backward quickly.

 

When he turns back around, the other three boys and a couple members of the team that caught up are blinking at them.

 

“Ha, you Midwesterners really are a friendly bunch!” the boy says, earning a few laughs. He claps Nico on the back like, really hard. Nico coughs and glares and blushes. “No, seriously, I’m a total klutz, dude, sorry,” he continues, grinning. He opens his mouth to keep talking when he’s cut off by a screech of bullhorn feedback. Coach Hedge is sprinting across the field, yelling so loudly the megaphone is garbling his words.

 

“Right!” the boy exclaims, running to the drivers’ side of the car. “It’s been cool, it’s been real, it’s been very cool and so, so  painfully real, I’ll see you guys around!” He aims the last bit at Nico, smirking like a total asshole and then ducking into the car and peeling off the field just as Coach Hedge reaches them.

 

“That was a car!” Coach Hedge wheezes, lowering his megaphone. “On our field! Our newly seeded field!”

 

“Wonder where that psycho came from, haha,” says Dakota, clasping his hands together and rocking back and forth slightly. “What a crazy idea.”

 

“Eight laps,” Coach Hedge tells him.

 

Dakota’s eyes go wide. “Wha?”

 

“Eight laps.” Coach Hedge repeats flatly. “Nice try, cupcake.”

 

“Cooooooooaaaaach,” Dakota gasps. “It was in the interest of the team, I didn’t want to be later than I already was--”

 

Coach Hedge raises his megaphone. “ EIGHT. LAPS. ”

 

“Aw! Okay!” Dakota covers his ears and starts jogging. The rest of the guys watching groan and follow.

 

Nico thinks he’s in the clear, for the moment at least, but when they round the goal there’s a flash of red at the edge of Nico’s peripheral vision. Literal red, because the boy is back and he’s wearing a ratty scarlet bro tank. He’s shimmying through a gap in the fence and clambering onto the bleachers, plunking down three quarters of the way to the top and sprawling out in the end of summer haze.  It could just be the thick pale grey sky or the humidity affecting him, but Nico’s brain is fogged with dry nerves as he eyes the teenager. When he sees Nico looking up at him, the guy winks and makes an obscene gesture.

 

Nico trips and almost falls on his face.

 

When he catches himself and glares up at the boy, he’s rewarded by a blown kiss and shoulders shaking in barely suppressed laughter. Nico discreetly flips him off and proceeds to have the most inexplicably clumsy practice ever. He trips about a dozen more times, most of them right after eye contact with the boy which, admittedly, Nico initiates more than he means to. He gets like two offsides just because he isn’t paying attention and once he almost gets hit in the head by a pass. All in all, it’s pretty much the worst thing ever.

~

 

Jason pulls Nico aside after practice, with an admirable look of concern on his face. Percy is tagging along because he’s co-captain, but it’s evident he’s disinterested by the disjointedness of his shifting movement and the way he keeps picking at his sweat-soaked jersey.

 

“You seemed really unfocused today,” Jason explains, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “And, since we’re the captains, we were just making sure you were feeling all right? School starts tomorrow, and that means the season starts too, so we all have to be on our games. Is anything bothering you?”

 

Nico’s eyes flit to the bleachers of their own volition before he can catch it. “No,” he replies firmly, but Jason already saw his glance and followed it to the boy on the bleachers. He’s messing with something in his hands that glints in the sun, and he looks up when he feels their gaze, face splitting into a shit-eating grin. Jason looks back to Nico.

 

“What? Why?” Jason frowns in confusion. His eyes narrow. “Did he say something weird to you?”

 

“What? No.” Nico sounds slightly hysterical. “What?”

 

Jason looks a lovely mix of concerned and frustrated. “Then why are you so freaked out? What did he like, grab your dick?”

 

Nico rasps a laugh loud enough that even he seems surprised by it, flinching slightly. Jason’s eyebrows crease and he opens his mouth, but Percy beats him to the punch, perking up in interest.

 

“Gross, Jason, way to jump to weird conclusions. No one wants dudes grabbing their dicks. Although--” He bats his eyelashes at Jason in dramatic seduction. “You could be my exception.”

 

Laughing, Jason slings an arm around his shoulder. “Totally, bro.”

 

“That’s not-” Nico chokes back an exasperated laugh. “Never mind.” He shuts his eyes for a moment before turning sharply and making for the locker rooms.

 

“But get your shit together next practice!” Jason yells, squirming as Percy plants a sloppy kiss on his cheek.

 

Nico flips the two of them off over his shoulder and ignores the boy in the bleachers. Avoiding the problem in hope that it will go away! Nico’s good at that. He decides it will be his strategy.

 

~

 

This strategy lasts less than twenty-four hours.

 

~

 

Nico doesn’t even bother glancing up as his first period teacher clears her throat, opting instead to gaze mournfully at his until soon unused binder as he’s been doing since he first walked into class and dropped into the desk at the back left corner.

 

“Welcome back to school! I’m sure you’re glad to be back and see all your old friends! And, um-” A pause, papers shuffling. She clears her throat again. “New friends! We have a new student from Texas in this class; Leo, um, Valdez, would you like to come to the front?”

 

Nico is suddenly significantly less entranced by his binder.

 

“Not really, but I guess I can make an exception for you.”

 

A chair screeches from the back of the classroom and a boy bounds to the front with manic, restrained energy, curls bouncing as he winks at the teacher before turning to face the class. Her face goes red and she clears her throat again.

 

“Um, so, could you tell us your name, grade, and, um, maybe a few hobbies or interests?”

 

“Well, you’ve already told them my name, but-” He clasps his hands together, grinning. “In case you didn’t hear, I’m Leo. I’m a junior, and my interests are machines and hot people.”

 

By some horrible twist of fate, he meets Nico’s gaze at that moment, and his already wide smile grows as the class titters. He shoots the next line while daring Nico to look away. “If you’re hot enough, you can even be a hobby too.”

 

“Um.” The teacher says eloquently. “That’s… nice, Leo. You can take your seat now.”

 

He salutes her with his eyes still on Nico, who’s maintaining a stony gaze even as he feels a flush creeping up his chest and onto his neck. He’s not one to back down from a challenge, no matter what people seem to think his general aura of silence suggests, so he keeps Leo’s gaze even while he’s strolling back to his desk, eyebrows raised in a silent dare. Valdez bites back a smile as he slides into the desk in the corner opposite Nico, next to Connor Stoll, who, Nico notices with a small burst of panic, is also watching him with a lazy, amused grin.

 

Nico grits his teeth. Leaning back in his seat, he is met with the extremely belated realization that instead of winning the boy on boy staredown, he probably should have done The Heterosexual Thing and laughed this off from the beginning. He senses Connor and Leo having a whispered conversation from the corner of his eye with occasional glances in his direction and feels sick. He doesn’t properly hear anything for the rest of the hour.

 

~

 

The bell jolts his shutdown, and Nico jerks, a rush of adrenaline flooding his system until he comes back to the present. He takes a slow breath before rising and slipping the binder into his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder. Making for the door, he flinches as he hears a voice.

 

“Hey sexy, what’s your name?”

 

He stops for a moment, looking to the ceiling in exasperation, and spitting “Fuck off.” before stalking out of the room.

 

~

 

Leo isn’t in any of his other classes before lunch. Nico celebrates this fact by getting an extra packet of ketchup in the lunch line, because ketchup packets cost 25 cents and he is normally not comfortable indulging that horrifying abuse of capitalism. He ends up with fries, a chocolate milk, and a plastic-wrapped thing of celery, in case Jason sees him and harasses him about eating healthy. Tucked away in the corner of the cafeteria, he eyes the crowd neutrally, but with enough venom that no one will try to jack his table.

 

Until someone tries to jack his table.

 

“Oh, fucking really?”

 

Leo beams at him, eyes sparkling. “Hi, fuckoff.”

 

“No.” Nico hisses. “Not hi. Bye. You’re leaving.”

 

“Calm down, puta,” says Leo, nice and easy. “I was gonna ask if you wanna make good on our vow to be besties, not if you do sloppy seconds.”

 

Nico’s face burns, and in a dumb way, he’s honestly kind of offended. “Be quieter,” he grits.

 

Throwing his hands up in defense, Leo flashes him an incredulous look before it drops into a wide grin. “Whatever, chico. Whaddya say?”

 

“I don’t remember making any vows,” replies Nico darkly.

 

Leo gives a wicked smirk and a dismissive wave of his hand. “Details, details. Anyway, it’s not like I’d be taking anyone’s place.”

 

“Asshole,” Nico mutters, but he can’t really argue.

 

“I brought my Special Edition Oriental Pack…” He sounds like he’s trying to coax a cat into a bath. “I don’t even steal my Mythomagic cards, I actually paid for these fuckers because, like, supporting the industry.”

 

Nico breaks at that, reaching for the pack Leo’s pulled out of his jacket.

 

“Uh uh,” Leo goes, twitching them away with the most annoying self-satisfied expression. “Friends?”

 

Blinking before giving a half hearted glare, Nico mumbles. “Maybe.”

 

“I can work with that.” Leo drops the deck of cards into Nico’s hands and shoots him double finger guns. Nico flips him off absentmindedly while he spreads the cards over the table with reverence. His eyes are wide and excited, but when he glances up and remembers Leo’s still there, his body language goes tense.

 

Leo notices. “Hey,” he murmurs, voice dropping. He rolls his eyes but even Nico can tell it’s mostly for show. “I didn’t tell anyone, and I’m not gonna. Find your chill.”

 

Nico’s shoulders slump and his hands still over the cards. He’s still kind of paranoid and petulant. “You told Connor.”

 

“Fuck you, I did not,” Leo says indignantly. “I’m not an asshole.” He pauses. “Actually, I retract that statement. I am a total asshole, but even assholes as assholey as me have their limits. I said you were hot and he laughed at me and said there was no way you swung that way. And I took that abuse,” Leo continues, eyes widening theatrically, “--that proven falsity and insult to my obvious beauty in the name of keeping you safely ensconced in your facade of heterosexu--”

 

“Okay!” Nico inserts. “Whatever.”

 

Leo grins and opens his mouth to continue when something buzzes in his pocket. He pulls out a phone and blinks at the screen. A slow, terrifying grin spreads over his face.

 

“Alright, I gotta jam,” he says, standing up and bouncing on his heels so fast it looks like he’s vibrating. Nico starts gathering up the cards and he holds out his hands. “You can keep those until you see me next. In return,” he adds in reaction to Nico’s surprise. “You tell me your name.”

 

And-- that’s a really good deal. “Nico di Angelo.”

 

Leo shoots him one more pair of finger guns as he walks backwards, narrowly dodging a group of kids with trays in a move that has Nico wincing in expectation of a spray of fallen food. "Until we meet again, di Angelo."

  
“Whatever, Valdez.”


	3. Fic over

I'm not going to write any more of this story or any more fanfiction in general. I posted this as a chapter update just to get the information out so people don't continue being strung along by my leaving it open. I'm flattered as hell that people were still checking up on my writing after 2 years of inactivity and it's hard for me to stop going for that positive feedback but I've grown to believe that devoting time to fanfiction is negative for me. Focusing so much on male characters exacerbated dysphoria and made it harder for me to be in the real world, probably contributing to my identification as a trans guy for ~3 years (until ~this past winter) and I (tentatively) think that devoting significant time and energy to the m/m fic culture is ultimately bad for girls because it idealizes something they cannot have. I realize this is a controversial opinion. Feel free to talk to me about it if you want. To end on a positive note, thank you all for the encouragement and positivity in regards to my writing; I think writing my own original content (NOT fanfic) is in my future and I thank everyone for never being anything but encouraging.


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